These days, I like to think of myself as quite a good cook.
After 26 years of marriage, and raising a family, I’ve developed a knack for cooking for a crowd – including the ability to s-t-r-e-t-c-h a meal when unexpected stragglers present at the dinner table!
What is Your Culinary Rating?!
On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being absolutely no knowledge of the kitchen, to 10 – being able to cook an entire cordon bleu meal or win Master Chef or the like, I’d peg my cooking skills at a solid 7 or 8. I’m a great home cook, but not exactly gourmet.
It wasn’t always so, however.
Although I’d often helped mum in the kitchen, when I first left home I was pretty clueless at cooking.
Sure, I could peel potatoes, chop vegetables, dice meat, stir a pot and boil an egg.
But the ability to manage the whole production that is dinner – and to have it all ready at the same time, eluded me. My culinary rating in those days would have been a 1.
In those early days I lived on grapes, cereal, tinned soup and Vegemite sandwiches. I thought I was “it and a bit” if I managed to cook my favourite lamp chops 😉 .
By the time I was a newlywed, thankfully I had developed some basic cooking skills. I probably ranked as a solid 3 or maybe even a 4!
Dinner Party Disasters
We had moved into our new home and what better way to socialise on a budget, than to hold a dinner party or two?
However – although I was fine with cooking when it was just the two of us, as soon as I had to cater for other people, it all mysteriously fell apart.
Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was trying to be a perfectionist, maybe it was sheer coincidence, but those first few dinner parties? Disasters!
There was the time my in-laws came for dinner, and I cooked a roast. I inserted a fork to check if the joint was done – but when I went to pull it out, it lifted the roast out of the pan – before suddenly releasing it, and splattering me with hot fat. Ouch. Not sure what we did with our guests, but hubster and I ended up at the emergency department!
Another time, I steamed some vegetables in the microwave but when I lifted the lid I managed to scald my fingers. Oh the agony! Although the dinner party continued, it kind of ruined it a bit for me.
Dessert Disaster
Then there was the dessert disaster.
I’m a huge fan of meringues and pavlova so I decided to try my hand at a butterscotch meringue pudding. It looked magnificent as I proudly brought it to the table, ready to serve.
All was going well until the first mouthful of dessert.
I had somehow forgotten to add any sugar when whipping the meringue. Mmmm cooked egg white. Not my finest moment!
Still Accident Prone
Despite all my years of experience, I am still accident prone and often sport band aids on my fingers. Let’s just say, me and knives don’t get along …
Do you have any memorable dinner party disasters? What score culinary rating would you give yourself?!
Linking with Kylie Purtell for IBOT.